Guest Fest, al-Barran
Meet People and Learn Things

On February 1, 2006, I, AElflaed of Duckford, subbed in for Koris Natterhelm and did ballads while he recovered from pneumonia. (He'll speak February 8 on the history of the Estrella War.)

For eight people who came out on a very cold night, I sang The Wife of Usher's Well, Fair Ellender, Matty Groves, Tam Lin, and parts of other ballads in way of illustrating similarities and styles.


I showed examples with other kinds of art of what "same" can mean, showing some "identical" wheeled horses and some that are stlll wheeled horses, or other animals, but not so similar.

I also had many versions of "Guardian Angel at the Bridge" (and some not quite that), and half a dozen Chinese Checkers boards. All of that was intended to show that a ballad could exist in forms that had different tunes, different lyrics and different details and still be "the same ballad."

Because stopping and discussing breaks the spell, and because several other people wrote and said they couldn't make it, there will be a ballad singing session in a couple of months where we can have firelight and no handouts.

Traditional English Ballads
AElflaed of Duckford
February 1, 2006






Cartoon by AElflaed of Duckford, long ago

The photos were taken by Asta Gunwaldtsdottir and Bardolf Gunwaldtsson, for which I'm grateful. Asta was sitting where she could get reflections of other people in the windows, and purposely did that. Her artistry is appreciated.

Those present were Sir Gregor, the baron; Bardolf, Asta, Sadie, Kymma, Rab, Karl and Viviana. Four others wrote expressing interest but inability to attend.

Guest Fest main page with past and future information